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"YOU'VE SEEN THIS KIND OF EVERGREEN GROWING THERE YOURSELF." 




THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Received 

AUG ff 1903 

Copyright Entry 

0 3 

CUSS a xxc. No. 

L U ‘L L4- O 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1903, 

By Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. 


Published September^ IQOS- 


€ < 
4C 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA 
CLAUS. 


It was such a pretty story, — that 
story of the merry old gentleman dash- 
ing about the world on Christmas Eve 
with a team of prancing reindeer and 
a sleighful of presents, — that the real 
Santa Claus had never cared to dispute 
it. Indeed, he enjoyed it as much as any 
one, and he often laughed softly to him- 
self as he heard the children telling it 
over, and saw pictures of the jolly old 
saint disappearing down a chimney, with 
a twinkle in his eyes and a pack on his 
back. To tell the truth, nothing could 
have been farther from the facts in the 
case. He had never carried a pack or 


2 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


gone down a chimney in his life, and as 
for driving a four-in-hand of reindeer, he 
would not have known how to manage 
them if the gentlest team in all the North 
Pole region had been put under his hand; 
while, as for being old, why, bless you, he 
was a child himself, the most beautiful 
child in the world, with a face that could 
no more grow old than sunrise over the 
mountains, or starlight in the summer 
sky. 

It would have put an end to all these 
mistakes, of course, if a true picture of 
him had ever been taken, but the trouble 
was he always wore an invisible cloak 
when he went on his errands. It was 
the same kind of cloak that the old heroes 
used to wear, Perseus and the rest, when 
they went about fighting dragons and 
killing the wicked giants ; and the wings 
on his feet must have been for all the 
world like the pair that Quicksilver wore 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 3 


on his nimble heels in the doings you 
have read of in the dear old Wonder 
Book. 

Oh, there were strange things in plenty 
about the real Santa Claus, but the 
strangest of all was the way he managed 
his Christmas business. Not that there 
was anything so very remarkable in the 
scheme : that was simply — since he could 
not possibly do all the work himself — to 
impress other people into the service and 
make them his special agents. But the 
curious part of the business was this, that 
if once a person really began to work for 
Santa Claus he could never stop, he had 
to do more and more, he liked nothing 
else in the world so well, and the dear 
sly Santa Claus knew it. The only trouble 
was to get people started, and how he 
managed this was his own secret, but if 
once he could get close to them, close 
enough to whisper a word in their ears. 


4 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


to look for a moment into their eyes, and 
lay his small, soft hand on theirs, it was 
all over with them. Before they knew 
what had happened there would come a 
strange warm feeling at their hearts and 
the Christmas spirit was having its own 
way with them. 

” I shall have them all in the end, every 
one,” he said to himself one day — it was 
the day before Christmas — as he stood at 
the crossing of two crowded streets in a 
big busy city. Then he sighed just the 
faintest of sighs, to think how many there 
were still to be won, and how hard, how 
very hard it was to get hold of some of 
them. 

He was a trifle tired just then, for he 
had been following for half a dozen blocks 
a portly gentleman, who walked with his 
hands in his pockets and his head sunk in 
the collar of his great fur coat, without 
being able to get close to him, and this 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 5 


was always the hardest kind of business 
for the real Santa Claus. It was not the 
question of catching up with people, you 
understand — why, with those wings on 
his heels he could have put a girdle round 
the world in forty minutes, like Puck 
himself, but there was a sort of atmo- 
sphere in which some people wrapped 
themselves through which he could never 
penetrate. It was as thin and fine as his 
own invisible cloak, but cold, so cold that 
the chill of it took his breath away and 
kept him at arm’s length, as if an iron 
hand had thrust him back. 

The atmosphere around this portly 
gentleman was one of the coldest he had 
ever encountered, and Santa Claus gave 
himself a brisk little shake by way of 
getting warm again, as he stood looking 
after him at the crossing. He had not 
given up the chase for good, — of course 
not, — but he was too busy to go on with 


6 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 

it now, and then he smiled as he thought 
of a man named Scrooge, and what a 
work he had, once on a time, before he 
caught him. It had paid — dear, dear, 
how it had paid! — and what a worker 
for Santa Claus he had made in the end, 
that same old Scrooge, with Bob Cratchit 
and the little Cratchits, and tiny Tim, and 
a lot of other people — God bless them, 
every one ! — all the happier for the good 
cheer he put into their Christmas. 

So the wise little Santa Claus smiled to 
himself now and sent a nod after the 
portly gentleman as much as to say, '' I 
shall catch up with you some day yet, and 
grip you hard, my fine fellow,” and then 
he stopped thinking about him and looked 
sharply around to see what he should do 
next. 

Now it happened that Dick Daly, a 
boot-black, was passing at that moment, 
and Dick was not looking happy. It 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 7 


was a dull day in his business. People 
did not seem to care whether their shoes 
were polished or not, they were so busy 
hurrying up and down with Christmas 
errands, and even old customers whose 
attention was called to the dull state of 
their foot-wear by Dick’s persuasive, 
''Shine, sir, have a shine?” went by him 
without stopping. 

" Hang it all,” he was saying to himself 
dejectedly, "it’s the worst time in the 
year for business. A fellow ’s got no sort 
of show on the day before Christmas.” 

" There are plenty of fellows worse 
off than you are,” said Santa Claus giving 
him a nudge (he had not the least trouble 
in getting close to Dick). "Look at 
that little chap coming across the street. 
You’d think he hadn’t a friend in the 
world and never saw a nickel.” 

It was certainly a sorry-looking waif 
who was coming towards them just then. 


8 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 


Dick, who knew most of the street Arabs 
in this part of town, did not remember 
ever seeing him before, and his sharp 
bright eyes went over him in a twinkling. 
He was not so very ragged nor dreadfully 
dirty, but he looked so little and pinched, 
and his face had •such a disconsolate 
pucker in it, that Dick, who had as much 
curiosity as a Mongoose, gave a low 
whistle and decided to find out what was 
the matter with him. 

” Hullo, little one!” he said cheerfully 
as he drew a step nearer. ” Out buying 
Christmas presents? You don’t exactly 
look as if you ’d struck anything that 
suited you.” 

The child stared stupidly at Dick. He 
did not understand this kind of greeting. 

'' Maybe you don’t know where to get 
’em,” pursued Dick, dropping into a con- 
fidential tone. ” Come now, I ’ll give you 
some points and not charge any commis- 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 9 

sion. Gold watches and diamond rings 
selling out for cost at Hubhell’s. First 
class suits of clothes, jackets and trousers, 
all wool and a yard wide, going for a 
song at Howler’s, and everything to set 
you up in housekeeping at your own price 
right round the corner here at the Empo- 
rium. Guess you ’re kind of a Tenderfoot, 
ain’t you? Have n’t got onto things in 
our town very well yet.” 

The child, who had looked more stupid 
than ever during part of this speech, 
seemed to gather some meaning from the 
last words. 

” No,” he said sorrowfully, ” we ’ve 
only been here a fortnight.” 

”Oh,” said Dick, the mocking tone 
dropping out of his voice. '' It ’s a streak 
of homesickness that ’s struck you, is it ? 
Well, that’s bad, but ’twont kill you. 
It’s jolly here when you get used to it. 


10 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


only H is sort of hard on a fellow starting 
in just at Christmas.” 

It was easy enough to understand this 
and the kind look in Dick’s eyes. The 
child sidled up a little closer. 

” Yes,” he said, ” it ’s awful hard. You 
see, father ’s sick. He coughs terrible bad, 
and they thought he might get better if 
he came out here, but it seems hke he’s 
worse than ever, and the money ’s most 
gone, and mother can’t get any work, and 
she and granny cry most all the time.” 

He drew his sleeve across his eyes 
and began to cry a little himself as he 
ended. 

'' Whew ! ” said Dick, ” that ’s piling 
things up ! ” And then he added quite 
sternly, '' But it ’s no use turning on the 
water-works; might freeze in this cold 
weather and bust things generally, you 
know. I tell you, folks have got to keep 



HE DREW HIS SLEEVE ACROSS HIS EYES AND BEGAN TO CRY 















THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 11 


a stiff upper lip when they’re down on 
their luck or it ’s all over with ’em.” 

The child swallowed hard, and Dick’s 
lip, which he was trying to hold particu- 
larly stiff, softened. 

''But say,” he went on, "I wouldn’t 
worry about your father — not yet awhile. 
Why, I ’ve seen folks so near gone you 
would n’t know ’em from dead when they 
came out here, and in a little while they 
picked up and were as lively as jack- 
rabbits. Just give him time, sonny, give 
him time. And about your mother not 
getting work ” — he gave the child a wink 
— "I would n’t fret about that either if I 
was you. A month from now she and 
your granny may have so much to do that 
you ’ll have to stay at home to take care 
of the baby.” 

The child began to smile. He won- 
dered how Dick knew there was a baby, 
and would have asked him, if Dick, who 


12 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 


could not think of anything more to say 
in the line of comfort, had not exclaimed 
just then (the face of the invisible Santa 
Claus was close at his ear) : 

” Look here, don’t you want me to give 
you a shine? It’s right in my line and I 
don’t happen to be rushed just this 
minute.” 

He gave the little fellow a good-natured 
push against the building behind them as 
he spoke, then, lowering his box to the 
sidewalk, began flourishing his brush in 
his most professional manner. 

The child’s face grew quite excited. 
« "Why, I never had my shoes blacked 
this way before,” he gasped. 

'' I should think not. Judging from the 
color of ’em I should say the boot-blacks 
must all have been out on a strike back 
where you came from,” said Dick dryly. 

He had stopped flourishing his brush 
and was looking from the shoes to the boy 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 13 


and from the boy to the shoes again with 
his most whimsical expression. It was 
not the color of the shoes (though they 
were red as an old stove-pipe) which 
struck him most. The size of them was 
even more impressive. They were large 
enough for a man, a tall man at that, and 
if the strings had not been wound tightly 
around the thin little ankles above them, it 
really seemed as if they must have fallen 
from the child’s feet when he tried to lift 
them. Dick had a momentary struggle 
with his professional sense that a custom- 
er’s taste in shoes was not to be questioned; 
then he gave it up. 

” I say, kid,” he burst out, '' what are 
you towing these gun-boats round for? 
They ’ll run away with you before you 
know it.” 

'' They ’re pap’s,” said the child, flush- 
ing. '' He said I might wear ’em, cause 
mine are all worn out, and I ’ve had to stay 


14 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 

in the house all the week. But they ain’t 
so loose for me as you ’d think,” he added 
eagerly, '' ’cause I got the chilblains so 
bad wearing the old ones that my feet are 
all swelled up and they take up lots of 
o’ room.” 

There was something in this that Dick 
liked. 

''Come, now, that’s the way to talk,” 
he said, in a tone of distinct approval. 
" Keep it right up. You ’ll make a soldier 
yet.” 

And then he fell to blacking and 
polishing those shoes as if he felt that 
here was the opportunity of his life for 
producing a masterpiece. But presently 
the brush began to move more slowly and 
Dick’s lips shaped themselves into that 
peculiar pucker which always came when 
he was thinking deeply. 

Now Dick was one of the thriftiest of 
the boot-blacks. Some of his comrades 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 15 


called it luck — the fact that he always 
managed to get his share of the work 
when there was any work going, and that 
he generally contrived to keep a little 
money in his pocket instead of being 
” dead broke,” which was the usual state 
of most of them. Whether luck, or pluck 
mixed with a sort of sturdy good sense, 
was really the right name for it is not the 
point just now. The important thing is 
that a great idea had dawned suddenly 
upon Dick, and in spite of the slack time 
on which he had fallen in business he felt 
a strong inclination to carry it out. It 
would take money. But who counted 
money at Christmas? he said to himself, 
loftily. He was up on his dues at the 
lodgings, and, counting the three nickels 
he had taken in as the result of his morn- 
ing’s work, he actually possessed one 
dollar and a half, most of which he had 
meant to ” salt down ” toward certain 


16 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 

schemes of his own; but over against them 
now had risen the fact that the little chap 
in the dreadful brogans needed a new 
pair of shoes. That without them he must 
stay in-doors, where a man was cough- 
ing and women were crying, instead of 
being out with other boys, went to Dick’s 
heart. ISTo wonder the poor child looked 
ill and homesick. The rate at which the 
brush was moving quickened; the pucker 
went out of Dick’s mouth and his eyes 
grew bright and eager. 

'' There ! ” he exclaimed, looking up 
from the shoes after a last onset of polish- 
ing. ” Take your daddy that shine as a 
Christmas present. Tell him I send it 
with my compliments. And say, if you 
have n’t got anything pressing just now, 
s’pose you come round with me to 
Donovan Street. There ’s a shoe-store 
there that I want to look into.” 

The child had apparently no suspicion 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 17 

of Dick’s plan, but he looked pleased with 
the invitation. 

” I should like to go,” he said, eagerly. 

'' Fact is,” said Dick, dropping into his 
most waggish tone, " I ’ve got a curiosity 
to see what size of shoes you really wear, 
and I ’m afraid it ’ll keep me awake to- 
night if I don’t find out.” 

The child began to stare. ” Do you 
mean you ’re going to get me a pair?” he 
asked slowly. 

'' That ’s about it, sonny,” said Dick, 
and then he burst out laughing at the 
child’s solemn face. '' I know it ’s a little 
hard on a body when he ’s carrying round 
as much shine as you are to come down 
to about a quarter of it all at one jump, 
but your daddy might want his shoes, you 
know, to take a walk in this evening, and 
’t would be safer for you to have a pair of 
your own.” 

The child made no reply, but a radiant 


18 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 


look came into his face. He dropped 
behind Dick and followed at his heels 
like a spaniel. 

There was a special sale going on at 
Bruce and Butler’s ” Great Shoe Palace ” 
on Donovan Street. A flaming card in 
the window assured passers-by that shoes 
were not only going at prices which 
knocked the bottom out of the trade at 
every other place in the city, but that 
actually a ticket for the handsome rose- 
wood piano standing at the front of the 
store would be given away with every 
dollar purchase. Dick was too shrewd 
not to have his own opinion as to the 
exceptional cheapness of goods sold with 
such a bonus, but he knew Bruce and 
Butler of old, and he had confidence in a 
certain style of dollar and a half shoes 
which was always to be found at this 
place. So he led his new protege down 
the length of the store, placed him on a 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 19 


comfortable seat and marched up to the 
counter with the air of one who knows 
his business exactly. 

” Show me a pair of shoes for that little 
chap over there,” he said to the clerk who 
stepped briskly forward. ” Straight goat 
with good thick soles — kind you sell to 
us fellows for a dollar and a half.” 

He was very much on his dignity while 
the clerk produced the desired sort, and 
seating himself before his small customer 
proceeded to take off the pair which had 
just been polished so handsomely. 

” Thought you would n’t wait to grow 
up to these, did you, Bubby? Well, I 
would n’t if I was you. Life ’s too uncer- 
tain,” remarked the clerk with a wink, 
first at the child and then at Dick. 

But Dick did not encourage this jocos- 
ity. He had quite the air of a parent out 
clothing his family. 

” Queer how these little chaps are 


20 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


always wanting to stand in older folks’ 
shoes,” he remarked, as if by way of ex- 
planation. always like to encourage 
’em up to a certain point. But it won’t do 
to let ’em carry it too far, not too far, you 
know, even at Christmas.” 

It did not take long to do the business. 
A few minutes and the poor little chil- 
blained feet were clothed in a strong, new 
pair of shoes, altogether neat and respect- 
able. Dick’s pocket was light, but so was 
his heart, so what did it matter? He was 
turning away when the clerk called after 
him. 

"Here ’s your ticket to the piano. 
Better take it, there’s no telling where 
lightning may strike,” he said, holding 
out a bit of pasteboard. 

Dick pocketed it with a laugh. " I ’ll 
give that piano to my best girl if I get it,” 
he said; then, turning to the child, " Come 
on, let ’s see what it looks like.” 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 21 

He had been so absorbed in his errand 
when he entered the store that he had 
hardly noticed the piano, but he walked 
towards it now with a face full of interest. 
A young lady was playing, and a number 
of people were standing about listening to 
the music. It was good music, for the 
piano was really a nice one, and the 
young lady whose fingers moved so deftly 
over the keys was an excellent performer. 
But she looked tired, dreadfully tired. 
She had been playing for hours — it was 
part of the advertisement and she was 
paid for doing it, but the music had lost 
all meaning in her own ears. She had a 
feeling that she was turning into a 
machine, and if her two hands had sud- 
denly shaped themselves into a crank it 
would hardly have surprised her. She 
was wondering how much longer she 
could keep it up, and whether the end 
would not be that she would play discords 


22 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


without knowing it, when Dick and his 
protege came up. 

Now if there was one thing in the 
world that Dick Daly loved it was music. 
A hand-organ or a music-box could lure 
him away from business, and a brass band 
playing ”Hail, Columbia,” could simply 
make his heart too big for his jacket. He 
had bankrupted himself once buying a 
banjo, and every fellow at the lodging- 
house knew how he played it of evenings. 

Perhaps it was the pleasure in his face 
which made the young lady’s eyes find his 
the next time she looked up from the 
piano. He was whistling a soft accom- 
paniment to the waltz she was playing 
and keeping time with his head to the 
beat of the music. The sense that some- 
body was really enjoying it made her face 
brighten and she gave him a friendly 
smile. 

Dick returned it with interest and then 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 23 


he came a step nearer. ''Would you 
mind playing 'El Capitan’?” he said in 
his most persuasive tone. " It ’s a great 
favorite of mine.” 

She struck into it in an instant and 
played the lively two-step in a manner 
that made it hard for Dick and several 
other people to keep their feet on the 
floor. Then she glided off into another 
of the Sousa’s and followed it with a num- 
ber of popular airs, weaving bright little 
variations of her own in and out as she 
played, and ended at length with a " Hot 
Time in the Old Town,” done in a style 
which set Dick fairly beside himself with 
delight. 

" Don’t she beat the band, though? ” he 
burst out to a staid-looking gentleman 
who was standing near him. Then, turn- 
ing to the young lady herself, "I say! 
you’re a crackerjack at playing the 
piano.” 


24 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 


A flush, partly of embarrassment, partly 
of pleasure, swept oyer the girl’s face. 

'' Thank you,” she said. ” I ’m so glad 
you like it.” 

” Like it I ” cried Dick, fervently. And 
then another idea, almost as bright as the 
one which had come to him so suddenly 
at the corner, popped into his head, and 
was out of his mouth before it had time to 
turn back. 

” Look here, have you got a piano ? ” 

''Not one of my own,” said the girl, 
" but I rent one. I ’m a music teacher.” 

" Well, you ought to have this one,” 
said Dick, with emphasis. " I ’ll give you 
my ticket and I hope you ’ll draw it.” 

Ticket number 2125 came out of his 
pocket as he spoke, and tears were in the 
young lady’s eyes as she put out her 
hand to take it. They were great dark 
eyes, very soft and beautiful. 

" Upon my word that ’s not a bad idea,” 



■'WOULD YOU MIND PLAYING 'EL CAPITAN’?’’ 




THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 25 


said a stylish-looking young man who 
was close by and saw it all. ” Please take 
mine too, with my best wishes for your 
good luck,” he added with a bow to the 
musician, and five more tickets went down 
on the piano. 

Talk about measles being catching! 
There is nothing half so catching as a 
good, kind thought. It was astonishing 
how that one of Dick’s spread, and how 
the people who were standing there all 
seemed to get it at once. They saw in an 
instant what a capital thing it was to do, 
and bits of pasteboard fell on the piano 
like a little shower of leaves. It was not 
the end of the shower either, for that 
story stayed in the store all day, and more 
than one customer who heard it lingered 
to listen to the music and decided to 
leave his tickets with the winsome little 
musician. 

She was so overwhelmed at first that 


26 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


she could not speak. Then she rose in 
her place, her dark eyes darker than 
before and her voice trembling very much. 

"Thank you all,” she said. "Whether 
1 get the piano or not, it will always be a 
pleasure to me to think that so many of 
the people wanted I should have it.” 

A little later she said in a low voice to 
Dick, who somehow found it hard to tear 
himself away, " If I should get it I should 
owe it to you, and you must come round 
and let me play to you.” 

" Bet your life I ’ll do it,” said Dick, 
and he pocketed her card in place of his 
ticket. 

It is going outside of this story, and 
that is out of order of course, but Dick 
kept that promise a week later, and the 
music that came from the rose- wood piano 
was better than ever. 

But we must get back to our dear little 
Santa Claus. You are not by any means 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 27 


to suppose that he had been staying with 
Dick all this time. There was not the 
least need of that, for when once he had 
started him on the business of cheering up 
that sorry little lad at the crossing, all the 
rest followed as naturally as a snow-ball 
grows when you set it rolling. 

In the half hour it had taken to do all 
this, Santa Claus had been busy with a 
dozen errands in as many different parts 
of town. He had dived into an office 
where all sorts of coal were for sale, and 
whispered to a pleasant looking gentle- 
man, who was ordering some for his 
family, that a certain poor neighbor in his 
alley was very likely needing some too. 
He had taken a turn through the market 
and reminded a lady who was buying her 
Christmas turkey, that her washwoman 
had a dreadfully hard time to supply her 
children with plain bread and butter. He 
had brushed the shoulder of a sweet 


28 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


young girl who stood at a street corner 
with a box of roses and put it into her 
mind to slip one of them into the hand of 
a httle old woman who was passing just 
then. He had even given another two 
minutes to the portly gentleman with his 
head in the fur collar, and for an instant 
had really thought he was coming up 
with him, for the gentleman had stopped 
before a bulletin board and seemed much 
concerned over the report of a railroad 
accident, but the next moment he was 
wondering whether the loss involved 
would affect the dividends on that road, 
and with this the atmosphere about him 
grew so fearfully cold that the only thing 
Santa Claus could do was to make off as 
fast as possible. 

Oh, it would take a story all by itself 
to tell one-quarter of the things he had 
been doing in this last half hour, but, at 
the particular moment when Dick, step- 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 29 


ping as if he were still keeping time to 
music, walked out of the shoe store, with 
a child beside him who looked as if he 
had forgotten all the troubles of the 
world, he, Santa Claus, was walking arm- 
in-arm with a motherly-looking lady who 
was hurrying from one shop to another, 
fairly loaded down with parcels. 

She was an old acquaintance of his. 
He had had her on his list of workers for 
years and years. For that matter (we 
might mention it in passing) he never had 
any trouble enlisting the mothers. Some- 
how they were in league with him from 
the minute the first baby slipped into their 
arms, but he liked to go about with them 
now and then just to see how they carried 
on his business. 

The lady who was his companion now 
was looking a little down-hearted. The 
fact is, she was tired and worried, and she 
was actually saying to herself: 


30 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


” Oh, dear, I wish there was n’t quite 
so much of Christmas ! It wears a body 
all out trying to think what to give to so 
many people. I don’t mind the children ; 
it ’s just a pleasure to plan for them. But 
the grown-up folks that you feel as if you 
must give to — I declare it’s a regular 
bondage. It seems to me I shall never 
get through this year’s list.” 

Now if there was anything that made 
the real Santa Claus feel like crying, it 
was to hear one of his own workers talk 
like this. 

What makes you give to those people, 
then, if it ’s such a burden? ” he asked, a 
little gruffly. 

” Because — because,” said the lady, 
who thought she was just musing with 
herself, ” well, I suppose it ’s because I 
know they ’ll give to me, and then I should 
feel uncomfortable if I had n’t given any- 
thing to them.” 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 31 


Do you think that ’s the right way to 
give Christmas presents?” whimpered 
Santa Claus. 

"No, I don’t. It ’s simply horrid,” 
said the lady, promptly. 

” And it is n’t in the least what was 
meant when the angels sang together that 
night,” he added softly. 

” Oh, no, oh, no,” said the lady. 

"Then change the fashion, oh, change 
the fashion of it!” he pleaded. "Don’t 
let Christmas grow into this sort of thing, 
this give-and-get-again, this debt-and- 
credit sort of business ! It takes the very 
heart out of the day. It spoils the mean- 
ing of it. It is n’t fair to Him — to Him 
who brought the peace and good-will — 
to change it from the beautiful thing He 
meant to one that is tiresome and selfish. 

" Come, now,” he went on, a lighter 
note coming into his voice as he saw that 
her lips were quivering. " How would it 


32 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


do to change this Christmas bondage 
you ’re talking about to Christmas liberty? 
Is n’t there somebody you would n’t dare 
to give a present to at any other time, 
whom you ’d like to remember to-mor- 
row? ” 

The lady, who had been having all this 
talk with Santa Claus, suddenly stopped 
in her walk, and stood staring down at 
the pavement. It was a queer way of 
easing her mind from the burden of that 
list she had been groaning over to think 
up some more people to give to ; but that 
is just what happened to her at that 
moment, and somehow her face began to 
brighten. 

” Christmas liberty ! ” she repeated. 
'' That ’s the idea. Why did n’t I think of 
it before? I declare, I believe I’ll send 
Jane Brewster’s baby a pretty little sack. 
She couldn’t take offence at Christmas, 
and she ’s been feeling edgewise towards 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 33 


me ever since our boys had that quarrel. 
And there’s Rob French, too proud to 
own that he needs anything, but scrimp- 
ing and pinching to the last point to save 
money to go to school. I know some- 
thing he really wants, and I’ll steal a 
march on him in the morning. What’s 
the good of Christmas, anyway, if it 
does n’t give one the right to take a bit of 
liberty now and then? ” 

Santa Claus slipped his arm out of hers, 
and he laughed the sweetest laugh in the 
world, as he hurried away. What would 
become of that other list of people did not 
trouble him in the least; and somehow it 
had stopped troubling her. Perhaps she 
would find the trifies she wanted more 
easily because she had stopped being 
anxious; perhaps she would be content to 
send to some of the friends she loved only 
her greeting and a bit of holly in the 
Christmas morning. 


34 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 


” If only they ’d all do like her ! ” said 
Santa Claus to himself, and it did not 
affect his wish in the least that he knew 
she had plenty of money, and there were 
many, man}^ others who must look long 
and think carefully before they spent a 
dollar. 

It was one of these others that he came 
upon at the very next corner, a plainly 
dressed young woman, who was waiting 
for a street car. She had done her Christ- 
mas shopping with a light purse, and 
there was nothing in it now but a car- 
fare. 

'' Oh, how many things one could do at 
Christmas to make people happy if he 
only had plenty of money ! ” she was say- 
ing wistfully to herself. 

” There are lots of things one can do 
without having much money,” said Santa 
Claus, pausing beside her. 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 35 


''But they are such little things,”' 
sighed the girl. 

" What do you know about little things 
and great ones? ” said Santa Claus, scorn- 
fully. " If you ’d seen the world turn 
round as many times as I have, and 
watched the people in it, you ^d change 
your notions about some things. If I had 
to take my choice between a worker with 
a heavy purse and one with a ready smile, 
I ’d take the smiler every time,” he added, 
making the last remark to himself. 

The girl was reflecting on what he had 
said, and being a person who was really 
on the watch for chances, with eyes in 
the place where the Bible says the wise 
man carries his, she noticed just then a 
very dignified but shabbily dressed old 
gentleman, who was standing within a 
few feet of her, evidently hoping to catch 
an occasional customer for the shoe- 
strings which hung from a frame about 


36 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 


his neck. He was not crying his wares 
at all, but he looked anxiously at the 
passers-by and fingered the strings with 
hands that were nervous and trembling. 

The street car was long in coming, and 
the girl began to notice that of all the 
crowd of people surging up and down 
the street not one person stopped to make 
a purchase from the poor old vender. 

^'How discouraging it must be,” she 
said, looking at the patient, pathetic fig- 
ure. '' Surely the old man must have had 
something better to do once than selling 
shoe-strings on the street.” 

" It does n’t hurt anybody to take a 
good smart walk on a day like this,” 
whispered Santa Claus. (The remark 
had an obvious bearing on that nickel in 
the young lady’s pocket.) 

” Of course it does n’t,” she said, giving 
herself a little shake; and she stepped 
briskly up to the old gentleman. 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 37 


''How do you sell your shoe-strings?” 
she asked, in a pleasant voice. 

" Two pair for five cents,” said the 
vender, eagerly. 

"Please give me two pairs,” said the 
girl, and she added as she dropped the 
nickel into his hand, "It’s a great con- 
venience sometimes to be able to buy such 
things on the street. It’s the sort that 
you are always forgetting when you are 
in the stores.” 

A look of surprise and pleasure swept 
across the man’s face. 

" Thank you,” he said, and if the girl 
had not hurried away just then she would 
have noticed that he held his head higher 
than before and began timidly to call the 
attention of passers-by to his stock. 

" There ’s a good five cents’ worth of 
work,” said Santa Claus, and he smiled 
to himself, remembering what the lady 
had said about little things. Then, not 


38 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 


caring in the least whether little things 
or great (as people name them) fell in his 
own way, he made a sudden dash into an 
alley and stood for a minute looking up 
at a window which had caught his eye as 
he turned about. 

There was a face at the window, a 
child’s face, with big blue eyes and yellow 
hair falling across the forehead. It was 
a beautiful face, but that was not what 
made Santa Claus stop to look at it. It 
was the wistful expression in the eyes, 
and the sight of something on which the 
child leaned as she stood by the win- 
dow. It was a little wooden crutch, as he 
knew in an instant, and his own eyes 
took a wistful look, as he said under his 
breath : 

” Poor thing, she ’s shut up there in that 
room when she wants to be out in the 
sunshine, seeing the Christmas doings 
like other children.” 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 39 


Perhaps she might have gone if there 
had been any one to take her, but the 
woman who sat in a chair near by had 
her head bent low over a piece of sewing, 
and saw nothing else. 

''If I could send somebody up there 
with a bit of Christmas cheer! ” said Santa 
Claus ; and then he glanced up and down 
the alley in his quick, sharp way, to see 
who there was that could be impressed 
into the service. 

But the people in the alley were hurry- 
ing through to the street; and, indeed, it 
would not have been easy to invent an 
errand which should take a chance passer- 
by up to that room with the window. 
For a minute Santa Claus looked a little 
puzzled. Then, all at once, a bright idea 
came into his head, and in a twinkling he 
had found a way. 

Now to understand what it was, you 
must know that this real Santa Claus of 


40 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 

ours is not at all limited to men and 
women for helpers in his Christmas busi- 
ness. He has a fashion of setting any 
creature at work for him that comes in 
his way, and that has the least liking for 
being helpful to others. Many a time he 
has sent a faithful dog, or a soft, purring 
kitten, on one of his errands, and as for a 
bird with a song, there is really nobody 
that he likes much better, unless it may 
be a child with a loving face and a happy 
laugh. 

It happened, at the very moment when 
he was beginning to look puzzled, that a 
flock of little brown birds came fluttering 
into the alley. They had no songs to 
speak of, and not much color, though you 
might catch a hint of pink when their 
wings were lifted, and there was one 
of them that had the dearest little rosy 
spot on the top of his head. 

'' They Ve just in the nick of time,” 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 41 

said Santa Claus to himself. '' I ’ll have 
them take a turn up to that window.” 

Then he lifted his finger, and in an in- 
stant the birds were all about him. Peo- 
ple who knew no better might have 
thought they were tired and stopped to 
rest on the sidewalk just then; but that 
was not the way of it at all, as they would 
have known if they could have seen the 
beautiful young Santa Claus, light as a 
bird himself, poised smiling in the midst 
of them. 

'' Brother birds,” he began, which, as it 
happens, was exactly the way a dear old 
saint, who walked about the world in a 
long gray cloak ever so many years ago, 
used to begin his talks to birds. That 
was St. Francis, you remember, and he 
had a way of preaching little sermons to 
birds and other free wild creatures whom 
he came across in his travels. Perhaps 
they understood him better than some 


42 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 


men and women. The real Santa Claus 
had known and loved St. Francis well. 
He never had a better helper. 

” Brother birds,” he began, and then he 
struck out into a little sermon that was 
quite his own. ”We all know there’s 
nothing so sweet as helping each other, 
and we people that have wings are the 
luckiest in the world, for we can be quick- 
est in doing it. There ’s a poor little shut- 
in child looking out of that window. Fly 
up and give her a happy thought. Do 
something to cheer her.” 

They circled around his head for an 
instant, with a twitter of joy, then they 
flew straight up and settled on the sill of 
that window where the child who had no 
wings, nor even two free feet, was looking 
out so sadly. As it happened, there were 
seeds on the window which had fallen 
from a vine the wind had been shaking, 
and when the birds had eaten every one 



THEY FLEW UP AND SETTLED ON THE SILL. 









THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 43 


they lingered still, hopping about, chirp- 
ing and lifting their wings, and the one 
with the rosy head turned it from side to 
side in the sunshine, and looked at the 
child with his clear, bright eyes, till the 
sorry look went out of hers, and she 
laughed with pleasure. 

It was such a pretty picture that even 
Santa Claus lingered an instant to see it; 
and he was not the only one, for a poet 
who was passing by, heavy-hearted be- 
cause he had no gift to send his friend, 
lifted his eyes, and the sight of the child 
with the crutch at her side, and the 
winged creatures hovering at her window, 
put a thought into his heart which shaped 
itself into tender verse that went to his 
friend in the morning. 

And the friend, who cared more for his 
thought than for any costly thing he could 
have sent her, declared that she must see 
that window for herself, and presently she 


44 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


found an errand to take her up to the 
room, and before long there was no crutch 
there, but a happy child set free through 
her help. 

Santa Claus was the beginning of it all, 
and he fell into such a glee thinking of 
what would happen — for no one knows 
as he does how things go on when once 
they have started — that there was no 
keeping his feet to the ground as he 
turned away. 

He went flying around the corner at 
such a rate that he almost ran into the 
portly gentleman with his head in a fur 
collar, who had escaped him twice before. 

” Look here,” said Santa Claus, pulling 
himself together, this won’t do ! I 
can’t go dodging around this old party any 
longer. By hook or crook, at some rate 
or other, I ’ve got to get hold of him.” 

And the look that came into his eyes as 
he said it would have shown any one in 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 45 


the least acquainted with the real Santa 
Claus that he meant business. 

Now it happened that at that minute 
the portly gentleman was passing a little 
booth filled with Christmas greens. There 
were Christmas trees at the back, and the 
counter which stood against the sidewalk 
was covered with wreaths of holly, bunches 
of mistletoe, and heaps of feathery ground- 
pine, while, in the midst of all, a lively 
young man was calling : 

” Step right up, gentlemen, step right 
up, ladies ! Here ’s where you get your 
Christmas greens, all at the lowest prices, 
and everything fresh and handsome.” 

There was such a woodsy smell about 
the place that it really seemed as if one 
could not help stopping, if for nothing 
else than to take a long, deep breath ; and 
hundreds of people did stop as they 
passed, many of them carrying a sprig of 
mistletoe or a wreath of holly as they 


46 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 


turned away. The portly gentleman had 
no notion of doing anything of the sort. 
He did not smell the woods nor see the 
greenness, but he stopped all the same 
before he knew it. 

Whether Santa Claus had anything to 
do with it, or whether it was only a mis- 
chievous dog that leaped up against the 
counter just then, and catching at a rope 
of ground pine, dragged a great coil of it 
down on the pavement, we do not pretend 
to say. But one thing is certain, all at 
once our gentleman, who was noticing 
nothing and quite wrapped up in figuring 
on the price of some real estate he meant 
to buy, found his feet in a tangle of ever- 
green, and himself brought to a sudden 
halt. 

” Oh, beg your pardon ! — Get out, you 
cur ! ” said the young man, jumping across 
the counter; and he stooped down and 
began to unwind the feet of our friend. 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 47 


whom we might as well call Mr. Worldly 
Wiseman as anything else. It is a very 
good name for him, and was carried long 
ago by one of his famous relatives. 

Mr. Worldly Wiseman frowned a little. 
He did not fancy being stopped by such 
foolishness, and then he began to look 
with some curiosity at the thing that had 
stopped him. 

” Don’t you want me to send some of it 
up to your house?” said the young man, 
who had a sharp eye for business. ” It ’s 
great for decoration. Nothing like it for 
winding round the chandeliers and putting 
over the pictures, you know.” 

Oh, I always leave that sort of busi- 
ness to the women folk; I presume they ’ve 
got some of it already,” said Mr. Worldly 
Wiseman. 

But he was beginning to look at that 
evergreen with a pucker about the eyes 
which showed he was interested. 


48 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 

''It ’s only ten cents a yard, — throw in 
a yard or two extra, if you take a dollar’s 
worth,” pursued the young man, who 
was down on his knees, and seemed to 
find extraordinary difficulty in untangling 
the legs of his unwilling customer. 

"Ten cents a yard!” ejaculated Mr. 
Worldly Wiseman, with a sudden start. 
" Did you say ten cents a yard? ” 

He took hold of the evergreen rope 
and examined it sharply. He hfted it to 
his nose and smelled of it. Then he 
asked in a tone that was almost solemn : 

" Say, young man, where did this come 
from? ” 

"Prom back East,” said the young 
man. "Prom — I believe it was from 
Maine.” 

He was making a guess at it, but oddly 
enough he had hit it right. (The invisi- 
ble Santa Claus was standing close by 
him at that moment.) " It ’s sort of an 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 49 


evergreen country, you see, Maine is,” 
he went on. ''It’s cold as Greenland 
back there, and they ’ve got a scrubby lot 
of hills that are all covered with this sort 
of stuff.” 

" Young man,” interrupted Mr. Worldly 
Wiseman, drawing himself up with dig- 
nity, "you can’t give me any points on the 
State of Maine. I was born and brought 
up there. I know those hills from A to 
Izzard, and I know just how cold ’t is too,” 
he added, shrugging up the collar of his 
big fur coat. 

The young man appeared to be much 
struck with this information. "I say!” 
he exclaimed, " then I should n’t won- 
der if you ’ve seen this kind of evergreen 
growing there yourself.” 

"Seen it growing?” repeated Mr. 
Worldly Wiseman. " Well, if all I gath- 
ered when I was a boy ” — 

"You and Ben and Jenny, you know,” 


50 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


put in Santa Claus, who was edging 
cautiously up to him. 

” If all the ground pine that we child- 
dren picked,” continued Mr. Worldly 
Wiseman, growing impressive, '' had been 
sold at ten cents a yard, we could have 
paid off the mortgage on the old farm and 
built a new barn into the bargain.” He 
broke off a sprig of the feathery green 
and held it in his fingers. ” Yes, send a 
dollar’s worth of it up to the house,” and 
he gave an address in the most fashion- 
able part of town, as he laid down a 
big silver dollar. 

Then he walked away, but he was still 
looking at that bit of green, and it was 
queer how things began to come back to 
him. Santa Claus was creeping closer 
and closer, for that strange cold atmos- 
phere which had kept him at arm’s length 
before was somehow beginning to melt. 

”Do you remember,” he whispered, 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 51 


that time when the scholars in District 
Number Three trimmed up the school- 
house for Christmas, and how you boys 
scoured the hills all one Saturday for this 
very green, and how the girls wove it 
together, and you all worked till after 
candle light trimming up the old place? 
My, what a bower it was when you had 
finished ! Every crack in the walls was 
covered, and every desk had a wreath 
hanging at the side, and the ceiling over- 
head was a perfect network of green, 
with a globe as big as a bushel basket 
swinging from the middle.” 

”Yes, yes,’' chuckled Mr. Worldly 
Wiseman. ”That globe was my own 
idea. We made it out of barrel-hoops, 
and I nearly broke my neck climbing up 
into the loft to hang it. We were proud 
of that old school-house, and we learned 
something there, too, if the desks were 
the clumsy old-fashioned sort, and we all 


52 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 

stood up in a row to spell. Those were 
the days when boys and girls thought 
they went to school to study. My eyes, 
what a set they were ! ” 

Their faces came back to him in a sud- 
den crowd, rosy-cheeked girls, in plain 
woollen dresses and calico aprons, and 
freckle-faced boys in home-made jackets 
and cow-hide shoes. They gathered 
around him, reminding him of work and 
play they had shared together, laughing 
over old jokes, and whispering old secrets, 
and if Mr. Worldly Wiseman had worn a 
thermometer on the outside of his coat, 
the mercury must have gone up twenty 
degrees in the next five minutes from the 
warmth that was gathering at his heart. 

Santa Claus was very close to him now, 
and he whispered more softly than before. 

” Do you remember, too, the time when 
you trimmed up the old farm-house ? 
Your mother had been sick, you know, 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 53 


and Jenny thought you ought to do 
something extra to surprise her when she 
came downstairs. You frosted your 
fingers pulling the evergreen, and don't 
you know how Jenny rubbed them and 
cried over them when you came home, 
and said you must wear her mittens after 
this, because they were thicker than yours? 
What a girl she was, always thinking 
about you boys and trying to get up nice 
things for you! She was the one, with 
your mother, that always contrived to get 
a little candy and a pop-corn ball into 
your stockings at Christmas. There was 
precious little money to spend, you re- 
member.” 

Mr. Worldly Wiseman took another 
smell of the pine. Then he blew his nose. 
Santa Claus had him by the buttonhole 
now, and was talking for dear life. It 
was astonishing what a way he had of 
leading from one thing to another. 


54 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 

” Things have changed a good deal 
since those days. You boys came West 
long ago, but Jenny ’s back in the old 
neighborhood still. Wonder how she's 
getting along in these days. Let 's see, 
there are five of her children. She named 
the oldest boy for you. They must have 
a pretty close time to get along on J ohn’s 
salary. It’s about six hundred a year, 
is n’t it? ” 

''Good Lord! ” ejaculated Mr. Worldly 
Wiseman at this point, but Santa Claus 
did not pause for an instant. 

"I suppose she works and saves, and 
sits up nights to do the sewing, and some- 
how contrives to make things comfortable 
for the rest, and pretends she never wants 
a thing herself, just as mother used to. 
Say, how long is it since you ’ve written 
to Jenny? Don’t you owe her a letter? ” 

"Owe her a letter?” Mr. Worldly 
Wiseman suddenly looked uncomfortable. 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 55 


It had grown extremely hard for him to 
write any but business letters. He even 
sent telegrams, instead of letters, to his 
wife when he was away from home. But 
the thought of his long and multiplied 
indebtedness to his sister disturbed him 
just then, and he cleared his throat rather 
nervously. 

” It would do her a sight of good to 
receive a letter from you,” went on Santa 
Claus, who was getting things down to a 
hue point now, ” and, by the way, while 
you ’re about it, you might put in a check 
for fifty dollars.” 

Mr. Worldly Wiseman started, and then 
for a moment stood stock still. But he 
was mightily pleased with himself for this 
new idea, which had popped so suddenly 
into his head. 

'' I ’ll do it! ” he said, under his breath. 
” There never was a better sister in this 
world than Jenny, and it ’s a shame the 

LofC. 


56 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


way I Ve neglected her. Wish I ’d thought 
of this thing in time to get the check there 
for Christmas, but she shall have it for 
New Year’s, anyhow. I don’t suppose 
she ever had fifty dollars to spend as she 
pleased in all her life, and I ’ll see that she 
has it for once.” 

He jerked out his watch and gave a 
quick glance at the hands. It lacked just 
ten minutes of the time for the banks to 
close, and he went hurrying down the 
street at a rate which made several shrewd 
acquaintances whom he met think he had 
some important business deal to close and 
was anxious not to lose a second. Santa 
Claus was with him, fairly hugging him 
now, and whispering in his ear as if they 
had been cronies ever since they could 
remember. 

As they w'ent there came back to Mr. 
Worldly Wiseman a thousand mem- 
ories of those early years when he was a 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 57 


barefoot boy working from daylight to 
dark on a rocky New England farm. He 
remembered a thousand dear, unselfish 
deeds which those who loved him had 
done to make the home life sweet, in spite 
of all its hardships. The very hardships 
themselves grew slight, as he thought of 
them. He felt like a boy again for the 
lightness and tenderness in his heart. 

''Zounds! I’ll make that check five 
hundred! ” he said to himself as he burst 
into the bank, and when he walked out a 
few minutes later with a New York draft 
for that amount in his pocket, he looked 
so radiant that a sergeant of the Salvation 
Army, who was standing outside watch- 
ing the faces of those who came and 
went, stepped up to him at once as the 
person most likely of all to make a hand- 
some donation towards the dinner he was 
trying to get up for some forlorn people 
down in the Bottoms. And he gave it, 


58 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS, 


too. The curious fact is, that the sum he 
had just drawn from his bank account had 
made him feel richer, not poorer. 

Then, oh, how the real Santa Claus 
laughed ! He knew it was not the end of 
it. He knew — and he stood for a minute 
in the crowded street dreaming softly of 
the things that would happen — how the 
letter that would come from that far-away 
corner of New England, so full of sur- 
prise at the generous gift, so overflowing 
with love and gratitude, would stir in the 
heart of this new agent of his a longing 
such as he had not known in years, to see 
the old home again and the faces of kin- 
dred; how he would go when the summer 
came; how he would meet that namesake 
of his, and go fishing with him one July 
afternoon, and discover, as they sat on the 
bank of the old trout brook, the secret 
longing of the boy for a better schooling 
than the little town afibrded. How the 


THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 59 


thing would grow! Ah, how such things 
were always growing, — mustard seeds at 
first, then trees for the birds to lodge in 
and build the nests of love and content I 

He drew a long, deep breath in the joy 
of it all, and then he darted across the 
street to help two children who were try- 
ing to find a gift for their mother, and a 
little later joined himself to a troop of 
boys and girls who were going to rehearse 
for a Christmas chorus, and put a fresh 
sweetness into the song they sang, a fresh 
courage into the hearts of those who were 
teaching them. 

And so it went on and on. Was he 
tired in the Christmas morning, when all 
through the night, as all through the day, 
he had been busy with errands of love? 

Oh, if you could have seen him when 
the light was breaking and the fair new 
day was stealing down from the tops of 
the mountains ! There was a shining in 


60 THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS. 


his eyes like the light of stars that never 
set, and he stretched out his arms as if he 
would draw all the world into his soft, 
warm clasp. 

'' I shall have every one in the end,” he 
whispered ; ” they will all be working 
with me. And the days will belong to 
me, too. From New Year to New Year 
every day will be Christmas.” 

He lifted his beautiful face and listened 
as he stood in the stillness. A song was 
in the air like the song the angels sang 
when Christmas day was young; but 
more voices were singing it now, for the 
world was answering. 


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